BBC: "Former Match of the Day presenter Jimmy Hill, one of English football's most influential figures, died on Saturday at the age of 87.
As chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association, he led the campaign for the scrapping of maximum wages for professional footballers.
He played 297 games for Fulham and was later manager and chairman at Coventry.
Hill - diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2008 - made more than 600 appearances as presenter of Match of the Day."
Guardian Report -
Guardian Obituary.
posted by marienbad
on Dec 19, 2015 -
7 comments

Or did he, and the other players, make the same decision that many are now saying we should: that in the face of horror the only thing to do is to keep playing, moving, living?
Watching it now – knowing all that we do about what happened Friday night in Paris – we can perhaps count it as one of the most surreal things to ever take place in this storied stadium, a place built nearly two decades ago specifically to house history.

certain football clubs have become symbols of football hipsterdom and many of them seem to have a lot in common: an almost blanket lack of on-field success, a history of anti-establishmentarianism, the status of plucky underdog, a nice away shirt

Comment trolls got you down? Feel like you can't make headway in a good old fashioned debate anymore because no one is following the rules? Logical Fallacy Ref is here to help.
posted by hindmost
on Nov 2, 2015 -
48 comments

During that excruciating waiting period, players stake out their preferences. “We’ll give a rundown of the donuts, look at them all and extend them through a combine, like the NFL combine,” safety Harrison Smith says. Donuts are judged on factors such as crispiness, size and frosting distribution.
The Minnesota Vikings' Donut Club has an executive board, membership cards, and a strongly enforced set of donut rules.
posted by everybody had matching towels
on Oct 20, 2015 -
25 comments

Instead of watching the NFL, we’re launching Football Book Club. And you know what: No one ever got concussed reading The Goldfinch. No one ever suffered a career-ending cervical spine injury curling up with his Kindle. No one’s mind was every slowly destroyed by books — the effect is really quite the opposite — despite what some social conservatives would have you believe. And, best of all: There is no way Roger Goodell can ruin this — he’s not even invited.
Every week, we’re exchanging one love for another: Instead of turning on the TV, we’ll read a new book — great works of fiction and nonfiction, poetry and graphic novels — and then we’ll share our thoughts about the current title and what our lives are like without the NFL.

BBC: Swiss prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation against Sepp Blatter, the head of football's world governing body Fifa. Telegraph: Criminal proceedings have been opened against him by the Swiss attorney general on two issues: a TV rights deal that FIFA signed with Jack Warner's Caribbean Football Union and an alleged "disloyal payment" of two million Swiss francs made in 2011 to UEFA president Michel Platini. Guardian: Office of the Fifa president has been searched and data seized. LA Times: The new investigation targeting Blatter involves “suspicion of criminal mismanagement as well as -- alternatively -- on suspicion of misappropriation,” according to Swiss Atty. Gen. Michael Lauber.
posted by Wordshore
on Sep 25, 2015 -
15 comments

Have you ever been cornered and asked, “So, what do you do?” Or maybe, “What’s your major?” Sometimes, it can be tough be explain. Everyone thinks they know what a pro athlete does. But do we really know? We asked MLS All-Star Chris Wondolowski of the San Jose Earthquakes to explain his job without any cliches. What You Don’t Know About: Being a Striker
posted by josher71
on Sep 5, 2015 -
16 comments

"As NFL players start training camp, they’ve got to make weight and learn the playbook. These are the requirements to make the team in the fall. But among players, another task has become equally important, and it’s causing problems throughout NFL camps. You must finish watching “Game of Thrones,” because the loudest debate in NFL locker rooms right now is not over Deflategate; it’s over television spoilers. With the exception of off-season workouts, this is the first time some teams have gotten together en masse in more than eight months. Naturally, talk at the lunch table or in the training room turns to the wildly popular HBO show, which wrapped its fifth season in June." (SPOILERS) [more inside]
posted by Eyebrows McGee
on Aug 6, 2015 -
13 comments

With two teams of 27 players placed in a sand pit and told, essentially, to do whatever is necessary to get a ball into the other team’s end zone, the sport is a strange mix of American football, rugby and street fighting. Watching it live, a more direct comparison might be to the children’s game Red Rover, but with punching and tattoos.

Sometimes, I worry about the effect that Football Manager has had on my life. I’ve had girlfriends I haven’t loved as much as my Uefa Cup-winning Southend United side (CM97-98) and friends that I haven’t seen as much as I saw my Nottingham Forest reserves (CM01-02). Why is it that I’ve never stayed up until 3am to write a book, but I did it on numerous occasions to guide Welling out of the Conference South (FM07)?

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